Chapter 45: Strange New Land
Carlos' eyes open as the morning light shines through the window. He blinks a few times and slowly sits up. His heart skips a beat once when he realizes he's in a strange place that is not his and Jay's Dorm. He looks around completely panicked and his mind begins to race.
Where are we? What happened to us? Are we crashing in the girls' dorm again? What place at Auradon looks like this? He wonders to himself as he sees the cheesy-looking wallpaper and floral printed bedspread he's sitting on.
Then everything from the previous day comes crashing down on him like a tonne of bricks. They weren't in Auradon. They were in Storybrooke, Maine… they were in another realm entirely. The battle with the War Frats, the portal, waking up in the hospital, Harry battling his father on a pirate ship, Jane holding a baby for the first time, the dinner at Granny's… It all felt like a dream; a very bad dream filled with unusual twists and turns, but with a few happy moments thrown in there.
He rubs his eyes and pushes a few long strands of his white hair from his face. He feels disgusting and notices that his clothes are wrinkled, meaning that he's slept in them. His feet are also stiff as he still had his shoes on. He looks around the room and realizes that both he and Jay must have been so tired last night that they didn't even both shutting the drapes or taking off their shoes. Knowing that there was no way he was going back to sleep, Carlos sits up slowly. There is a knitted quilt at his feet and he realizes that he'd pulled it up for warmth during the night.
Jay is still sound asleep on top of the bed next to him, his arms dangling over either side and his feet barely hovering above the floor. His knit cap is over his eyes, which likely prevented him from being woken up by the morning sun. It looked like Jay would probably sleep for hours, his best friend is known for that. If he didn't have to eat, bathe, or get an education, the son of Jafar would love to spend the rest of his life in bed.
Dude sleeps on the end of Carlos's bed, curled up in a ball. The son of Cruella is grateful that he hadn't woken his four-legged companion. It's too early to deal with the talking dog. He quietly gets up and closes the curtains to allow the rest of the room to sleep. He then quietly pads across the room, opens the door and exits into the hall.
It takes him a moment to remember which way led down into the diner. He tiptoes along the hall, hearing nothing from Mal and Evie's room, nor Ben and Doug's. He slowly makes his way down the stairs.
He walks into the main dining area and there are already sounds coming from the kitchen. The clanking of dishes and the smells of frying food.
"Come on, Floyd," the familiar, no-nonsense voice of Granny echoes in the back. "I'm sure we're going to have a ton of extra mouths to feed today. We're going to have to double everything. What am I doing, running a summer camp?"
Carlos's stomach growls hungrily and he immediately looks around for something to eat. He notices one of those trays that are covered with glass and often display different kinds of treats. He ducks down low to avoid being seen by the people in the kitchen. He comes to the tray and sees a display of what looks like freshly made doughnuts. He hesitates about taking even one, he'd put his stealing days behind him, but… why would they be on display if Granny didn't want people to take them? Ignoring his stomach gurgles, Carlos stealthily lifts the lid off the tray and takes two of the powdered pastries. He quietly puts the cover back on and heads towards the door. He pauses, remembering that the bell rang every time someone entered or exited the place. With slow, almost painful movements, the son of Cruella opens the door, trying to avoid the ringing and signalling the cooks to his presence. As soon as he pushes the door open with enough room for him to fit, he slips through and is out of the diner area like a rocket.
Immediately, he bites into the powdered pastries, not caring as the white sugar goes all over his face and even on the end of his nose. He sighs, happy that the doughnuts are still a bit warm. He licks his lips and finishes both the treats within a few minutes of him walking down Main Street of Storybrooke. And he thought candy had been the sweetest thing he'd ever tasted. Storybrooke may be small and weird, but damn could Granny bake good food.
Once his hunger is satisfied, Carlos begins to take in the sights of this tiny little town. Unlike Mal and Evie, who had been given the chance to see more of the place, however briefly that may have been for them, he was really going to look around, see if there's anything interesting to note. The streets are completely empty as the town had yet to wake up with the rising sun over the tall trees.
He passes by a hardware store, a garage for repairing cars, a shoe/psychiatrist's office, a bar called The Rabbit Hole, a few apartment buildings and what he thinks is a flower shop, called Game of Thorns. He turns around a few corners, looking for anything even remotely more interesting than a few dress stores and a pharmacy. He goes by the hospital and briefly glimpses the harbour again, wondering if Harry was still there, stewing in the defeat he suffered at the hands of his own father. The thought of the hook-handed nut job getting his ego deflated did bring a smile to the teen's face. As he continues walking around, Carlos is becoming more and more discouraged, hating the old esthetic of this tiny Maine town. There are no arcades, no basketball courts or any places for sports, except for a bowling alley, and there is nothing even anything remotely technical like a computer store. It's a complete waste of time, this place is stuck in the 1980s or medieval times it seems.
How can people live in a place so boring? He wonders to himself, shoving his hands into his pockets and starts thinking of going back to Granny's for more food. Hopefully, someone he knows will be awake by now, as he's wasted almost an hour or more walking around Storybrooke.
The cool breeze rustles the nearby trees, causing the teenager to shiver slightly and try to keep his dyed hair out of his face. He can hear a few birds chirping in the trees by the perimeter of the town and in the distance, the sound of a wolf.
Despite how bored he was, Carlos is beginning to think extremely hard. He walks close to the clock tower in the middle of town, thinking there must be something interesting there, but it was only a library, and it was locked so that is a bust as well.
His head is spinning as he processes everything that's happened in the last 24 hours. He remembered that most of the kids from Auradon and the Isle all have alternate parents in this place. Ben's are Belle and Rumpelstiltskin and he has a brother and technically a half-sister, Whitney and Simon's parents are Snow White and Prince Charming, Evie has her mother Regina, the former Evil Queen, Mal has her mother Maleficent and apparently another sister named Lily, Harry has Captain Hook, who prefers to be called Killian, and he is married to Emma Swan and they are expecting a baby. He tries to process the backstories that were told last night, but a lot of details have been lost in the flurry of information. A million questions roll through his head, but one remains constant through everything, where are his parents?
He thought they would likely be here, but then he remembers Emma saying that not all of their parents were here in town. For some strange reason, he remembers her reacting weirdly whenever he talked about his mother. He'd seen her hands shake at the mention of killing someone and her refusal to look him in the eye. He thought for a moment that the blonde Saviour had done something to Cruella De Vil, but something catches his attention before he can think about it further.
Gold & Family Pawnbrokers & Antiquities
The teenager peeks inside one of the windows and his heart races. Finally, something more interesting, despite all the stuff being old and dusty.
To his surprise, the door is unlocked, which seems really weird. As he steps inside, the smell of furniture polish, wood, and must fills his nose, and he wrinkles it in disgust. The place is dimly lit, with only some of the morning light shining in, but the teenager is fascinated by all the things surrounding him.
There are swords mounted on the wall, creepy-looking marionette puppets, dreamcatchers, strange portraits, a knight's helmet, clocks, ancient-looking runes, old books, and even a spinning wheel and bicycle. He runs up to a glass case and peers inside at the pocket watches, jewelry, old coins, ancient-looking china, maps, and other weapons on display.
"This is awesome," he whispers to himself, in delight. He starts to wonder how much this stuff was worth.
He goes behind one of the glass cases and looks at through some of the back shelves. As he does so, he leans extremely close to a mirror, half covered by a white sheet and heavily covered in dust. Time had taken its toll on the piece, the frame was painted black, and the metal ends were meant to resemble thorns. There are cracks in the glass itself, which distorted any image that it happened to reflect, and it also seemed to portray a permanent haze as a reflection.
The son of Cruella did not pay any attention to it until his hand grazed one of the thorns and drew blood.
"OW!" he mutters, sucking on the wound with distaste.
However, there's something that catches his eye. His heart jumps into his throat when he watches the smooth glass of the mirror warp and change. The thing begins to shake, causing the white sheet to fall to the floor, and the frame becomes an almost golden-copper colour. Carlos backs up into the glass case in horror, that is until the faint image of a person appears, in eerie-looking, red lighting.
Carlos's breath catches in his throat.
The woman in the mirror appears to be fixing herself, adjusting every aspect of her face and body, and enjoying every minute of it. The left part of her hair is dark black, while the right side is white. She wears a heavy amount of makeup, with shiny eyeshadow and it appears as if her eyebrows were drawn on using a Sharpie. Her dark red lips are tainted with a small smile and pop against her pale-looking face. In fact, her lips were so dark, it as if she'd been drinking blood and it had stained them permanently. She wears long silver earrings and a heavy silver necklace that sparkles along with her black, low-cut top. But what ties the outfit all together is the heavy black and white fur coat that she has draped over her shoulders, with a red felt interior, which based on the reddish lighting, also looks like blood.
Her blue eyes go wide as she seems to see something that horrified her as well. She lets out a screech, that actually rattles the mirror. Carlos is still in great shock, but he's also fascinated. He takes a few steps closer to get a better look. He can barely speak, in fact, only one word comes out.
"M-Mom?" Carlos gasps.
"Who are you and how did you get in my mirror?! And dare you to call this gorgeous thing a mother!"
A/N: Sorry it took so long, please review.